A wise man once told me never to bet on sports, so I haven’t, I don’t. Not since the ninth grade when I made a bet with my friend Mark — a kid who punched me in the head once, broke his hand in the process and was eager to get even — that the Pittsburgh Pirates would emerge from two games down to beat the Baltimore Orioles in the 1971 World Series. He offered me five bucks if the Pirates came back, and I’d pay him two if the Orioles went ahead to close out the series.

I got my five and that was it for my sports betting career. It was done, complete, over, finished.

But even if you’re not a bettor, there are times when the lure can be tempting. This is one of those times.

The over/under on Utah Jazz wins for the coming NBA season has been set at 34.5. Going with the over on that seems like easy money.

That’s not based on a bit of homerism, it’s just based on good sense.

Will the Jazz win 40 or 45 games?

Beats me.

But barring a slew of significant and unpredictable injuries, the Jazz are on the verge of bettering 34.5.

Bet on it, if you will. Thank me later. But don’t blame me if they don’t.

Skeptics might look at the results of the recent past to help predict results of the immediate future. Oddsmakers set the line, in part, by judging how bettors will react to their number. Folks might see ugly win totals such as 22 and 17 over the last two seasons and come to a conclusion that doubling up that second number would be a huge step forward. Anything more than that would be too much to expect.

No matter how much more improved in talent the Jazz will be in 2026-27, they still have to learn to play together, they have to search for and find comfort in working in additions like the proven veteran Jaren Jackson and the promising rookie Darryn Peterson, they have to learn to win. Especially in a Western Conference that is absolutely loaded.

Peterson will be challenged, as nearly every young pro is, by facing NBA players night after night after night. That didn’t go so well in his single season in college ball, when he went up against inferior talent. He believes his health struggles are behind him and maybe they are, maybe they aren’t. Even if they are, the rugged, elongated NBA schedule can be brutal for the healthiest of all. The first time most humans try anything they’ve never done before, they run into the hardship of conquering it. There are exceptions, but not many, not in the world’s best basketball league.

The loss of Walker Kessler in trade is bound to impact the win-loss record, although some analysts, using their own formulas, say the big man’s absence will pay off by way of gained assets in the years ahead, but will only cost the Jazz a game or two this season. Not sure about that.

Factoring in a newfangled Jazz starting lineup that now could have Keyonte George at the point, Peterson at the 2, Ace Bailey at the 3, Lauri Markkanen at power forward and Jaren Jackson down low, and a fistful of bench players who have shown signs in the past of some advancement, here’s the additional factor that makes guessing the Jazz will surpass 34.5 wins a solid bet: They’ll actually be trying to win.

Those Jazz records of the past can be thrown away because their games of the past were thrown away.

Yeah, the Jazz will have to rebound, craftily share the ball and D up; they have to come together, far beyond what they’ve done heretofore. That’s much easier to do when notions that the franchise as a whole wants you to lose are exorcised. And when everyone onboard is rowing in the same direction, fully sanctioned to do so, when the team’s best players are allowed to go full bore, not being held out of games or parts of games as a means to an incongruent end, when the anchor is pulled in and the engines are opened up.

There’s no reason to believe the Jazz are automatically in position now to contend for an NBA title or even a conference championship, but winning 35 out of 82 regular-season games? That they can do.

Easy money. Take it to the bank or the betting window.

Even a wise man can be wrong on certain occasions.

This is one of them, I’d bet.